KR100507032B1 - Printing method and apparatus for storing fault tolerant data on photographs - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of printing digital data on photographs using infrared ink and an inkjet printing process is disclosed. The data can be obtained by the camera from the details of the image, deformed by a suitable image processing program loaded separately into the camera, and recorded in a fault-tolerant form with a copy of the program, so Nevertheless, the reproduction or restoration of the original or deformed picture is possible.

Description

PRINTING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STORING FAULT TOLERANT DATA ON PHOTOGRAPHS}

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a data processing method and apparatus, and in particular, to transform an original image data obtained from a camera system by an image processing program and to store it on an image as infrared-red ink using an inkjet printing system. A data encoding method and apparatus are disclosed, wherein the data includes a copy of the program.

[Applications pending at the same time]

Various methods, systems, and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following applications filed concurrently with and pending by the present applicant or successor:

International patent application number (you will be notified when the number is notified) Document number PCT / AU01 / ART80 PCT / AU01 / ART82 PCT / AU01 / ART83 PCT / AU01 / ART84 PCT / AU01 / ART85

The contents disclosed in this concurrently pending application are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems, and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following applications, filed on July 10, 1998 by the applicant or successor and pending with the present application:

USSN 09 / 113,070

USSN 09 / 112,785

The contents disclosed in these concurrently pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems, and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following applications, filed on June 30, 2000 by the present applicant or successor and pending with the present application:

PCT / AU00 / 00743, PCT / AU00 / 00744, PCT / AU00 / 00745, PCT / AU00 / 00746, PCT / AU00 / 00747 and PCT / AU00 / 00748

The contents disclosed in this pending application are hereby incorporated by reference.

As described earlier in Applicant's pending applications USSN 09 / 113,070 and USSN 09 / 112,785, scanning allows a large volume of computer data to be stored on a simple print media such as a card. There is a widespread demand for print media scanning systems that can withstand a high degree of disruption when read by the device. For example, the form of distribution may experience a number of data corruption errors when its surface is scanned by the scanning device. The error may include the following errors.

1. A dead pixel error that occurs when reading a card surface with a linear CCD with a faulty pixel reader for a line, leading to the same value for every point on that line. .

2. It is desirable if the system employed is able to withstand the errors that occur when text is written on the card surface by the cardholder. In theory, any scanning system can tolerate such an error by scanning the card.

3. Various data errors can occur on the card surface, and any system that determines scuffs or blotces on the information stored on the card surface must be able to withstand.

4. When inserting the card into the card reader, there is some "play". This play means that the card can be rotated to some extent when read by the card reader.

5. The card reader can also be driven by an electronic motor past a linear image sensor such as a CCD. The electronic motor is subject to some fluctuation, which causes a change in the data rate across the CCD surface. This motor variation error must also be tolerable by the method of encoding data on the card surface.

6. Card surface scanners may experience various device variations, such as varying individual pixel intensities. In any system or method that affects the data contained on the card surface, the problem of changing the reader strength should also be solved.

It is ideal if any scanning system can maintain its accuracy even if there are errors due to the causes.

Applicants disclose, in USSN 09 / 113,070 and USSN 09 / 112,785 applications, a method and apparatus for printing data in encoded false tolerant form, preferably with black ink on a white background, on the back of the photograph. It was. The data is representative of data, including digital image file formats and / or computer program scripts, which scripts can be operated to recreate the image or add some effect to the image. For this purpose, a programming language called VARK script was invented, which is compatible and designed device-independently.

Notwithstanding all other forms that may fall within the scope of the invention, the preferred forms of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, by way of example only.

1 shows the data surface of a card or picture,

2 schematically illustrates the layout of a single data block,

3 shows a single data block,

4 and 5 are partially enlarged views of the data block of FIG.

6 shows a single target structure,

7 shows a target structure of a data block,

8 shows the positional relationship of a target with respect to border clocking regions of a data region,

9 shows an orientation column of a data block,

Fig. 10 shows the dot arrangement of the data blocks.

11 is a schematic diagram of the data structure for Reed-Solomon encoding,

Fig. 12 shows the structure of control block data before Reed Solomon encoding in hexadecimal notation.

13 shows a Reed-Solomon encoding process,

Fig. 14 shows the structure of data encoded in a data block.

The present invention uses infrared ink to print information with or on an image, thereby recording and encoding digital data corresponding to an image version made by a given image processing program with a copy of the program, thereby encoding and printing the data. One alternative to the method is to be provided, wherein the images and data are recorded on a print medium using an inkjet printing system as previously disclosed by the applicant.

One object of the present invention is to provide a method for printing digital data on a photograph, the data being image data obtained from a camera system and modified by an image processing program, the method comprising the following steps: .

a) transferring image data taken by the camera and modified by the digital data processing system using an image processing program from the digital data processing system to the first inkjet printing nozzles;

b) transferring the modified image data and the fault tolerant encoded digital form of the image processing program from the digital data processing system to the second inkjet printing nozzles; And

c) printing the deformed image data and the error-tolerant encoded digital form of the image processing program using second printing nozzles on the surface of the print medium while simultaneously using the first printing nozzles on the same surface of the print medium. Printing the deformed image data.

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The encoding step preferably comprises compressing the image data and processing it using a Reed-Solomon algorithm.

The invisible ink may be an infrared absorbing ink that can ignore absorption of the visible spectrum.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for printing error-resistant digital data encoded with infrared ink into a photograph, the apparatus comprising:

a) a printer having first inkjet printing nozzles for printing visible ink and second inkjet printing nozzles for printing infrared ink; And

b) transfer image data taken by the camera and deformed by the digital data processing system using an image processing program to the first inkjet printing nozzles, and the deformed image data and the image processing program. A digital data processing system arranged to transmit an error encoded digital form to the second inkjet printing nozzles,

c) the printer prints the deformed image data on the surface of a print medium using the first printing nozzles, and at the same time the deformed image using second inkjet printing nozzles on the same surface of the print medium. And arranged to print data and error-proof encoded digital forms of the image processing program.

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The printing means is, for example, provided with a print roll for supplying a print medium as disclosed in the Applicants' Artcam Applicants USSN 09 / 113,070 and USSN 09 / 112,785, for example Applicant's PCT / AU00 Paper width printheads using inkjet structures such as those disclosed in / 00743, PCT / AU00 / 00744, PCT / AU00 / 00745, PCT / AU00 / 00746, PCT / AU00 / 00747, and PCT / AU00 / 00748 applications can be employed. .

According to a more preferred form of the invention, the information is a photograph having a standard size of about 102 mm x 152 mm (4 "x 6") as compared to prior art data encoding cards having a size of 85 mm x 55 mm (approximately credit card size). Is printed on. By increasing the size of the recording medium, it is possible to increase the data recorded in the picture by about 3 to 4 times as compared with the prior art formats using similar or identical data encoding techniques.

The present invention preferably includes an inkjet printing system having at least four inkjet print nozzles per pagewidth printed head in a pagewidth printhead. The four inks are cyan, magenta and yellow for printing color images, and infrared (IR) inks for printing data together with the color images in encoded error-resistant form. Can be. One of the inkjet printheads that can be printed using four inks is the applicant's pending applications: PCT / AU00 / 00743, PCT / AU00 / 00744, PCT / AU00 / 00745, PCT / AU00 / 00746, PCT / AU00 / 00747 and PCT / AU00 / 00748.

Infrared inks suitable for use in the present application include the Australian interim patent applications PQ9412 and PQ9376, all filed on August 14, 2000, with the applicant's pending application, and PQ9509 and 2000, filed on August 18, 2000. PQ9571, PQ9561, filed August 21.

Techniques that can be used to encode information for printing an infrared ink are disclosed in the applicant's co-pending applications USSN 09 / 113,070 and USSN 09 / 112,785, the printer means of which are described herein for reference. Are disclosed in applications PCT / AU00 / 00743, PCT / AU00 / 00744, PCT / AU00 / 00745, PCT / AU00 / 00746, PCT / AU00 / 00747 and PCT / AU00 / 00748. Such techniques are described in Artcard, alternative artcard or dotcard formats. In this application, data is printed using black ink with an active data area of 80 mm x 50 mm on a white background behind a card of 85 mm x 55 mm size. In this way, 967 kilobytes of data are error-proofly encoded into 1.89 megabytes of data using 15,876,000 print dots.

Encoded Data Format

Of course, other encoded data formats are possible, but now one of the data formats encoded using the "alternative artgat" format described above will be described.

Overview of encoded data

The encoded data can be used to recover an image on which the data is based, or to provide a digital format for manipulation, such as transmission over a digital telecommunication network or image processing in a computer.

Data encoding techniques may also be independent of printing resolution. The concept of storing data as dots on a print medium means that the dots can represent more data if only more dots can be placed in the same space (by increasing the resolution). A preferred embodiment is a 1600 x 1600 dpi print on a 102 x 152 mm (4 "x 6") photo as a sample photo, but the equivalent design or data size can be substituted for other size photos and / or other print resolutions. The decision is simple. For example, in the applicant's inkjet printing camera system, a panoramic print can be done, which is twice the length of a standard-size photograph, where twice the data can be recorded to increase the redundancy of the image data. To be able. Regardless of the print resolution, the reading technique remains the same. After considering all the decoding and other burdens, the encoded data format can store 3 to 4 megabytes of data at print resolutions up to 1600 dpi for a 4 "x 6" print size. More encoded data can be stored at print resolutions greater than 1600 dpi.

Format of Encoded Data

The data structure on the picture is specially designed to help recover data. This section describes the formatting of data into photographs. This format is already described in the applicant's applications USSN 09 / 113,070 and USSN 09 / 112,785.

dot

Dots printed on photographs are of infrared ink with or on a color image. That is, "data dots" are physically distinguished from "non data dots". When the photograph is illuminated by an infrared light source having spectral characteristics complementary to the absorption characteristics of the infrared ink, the data is displayed in a solid color of "black" on the "white" dot. The black dot is a dot corresponding to the infrared ink absorbing infrared light, and the white dot is a dot corresponding to the color image area where the infrared ink is not printed, suggesting that the infrared light is not substantially degraded or only partially degraded. Doing. In the following, the terms black and white just defined will be used when referring to infrared ink dots for recording data.

In describing this embodiment, the term dot refers to a dot (of infrared ink) physically printed on a photograph. When the encoded data reader scans the encoded data, the dots must be sampled at least twice the print resolution in order to satisfy Nyquist's Theorem. The term pixel refers to a sample value from an encoded data reader. For example, when a 1600 dpi dot is scanned at 4800 dpi, there are three pixels in each dimension of the dot, or nine pixels per dot. The sampling process will be further explained later.

Referring to Fig. 1, a data surface 101 is shown to illustrate an example of encoded data. Each picture with encoded data consists of an "active" area 102 surrounded by a border area 103. The boundary region 103 does not contain data information but can be used by an encoded data reader to adjust signal levels. The active area is a data block (e.g., 104) is arranged, each data block is separated from the adjacent portion by a gap of eight image dots (e.g. 106). Depending on the print resolution, the number of data blocks on the picture varies. For a 4 "x 6" photo printed at 1600 dpi, the arrangement may be a 15 x 14 data block in an area of 2.5 mm margin, about 97 mm x 147 mm. Each data block 104 has a size of 627 x 394 dots with a spacing 106 between blocks of eight image dots.

Data block

2, a single data block 107 is shown. The active region of the encoded data consists of an array of identically configured data blocks 107. Each data block has a structure of a data area 108, a boundary 110, and a target 111 surrounded by a clock-mark 109. The data area holds appropriate encoded data and the clock marks, borders and targets are provided in particular to assist in positioning the data area and to accurately recover data from within the area.

Each data block 107 has a size of 627 x 394 dots. Among these, the center area of 595 x 384 dots is the data area 108. The surrounding dots are used to hold clock marks, borders, and targets.

Boundaries and Clock Marks

3 shows a data block, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are enlarged edges of the data block. As shown in Figs. 4 and 5, each data block has two 5-dot high boundaries and clock mark areas 170 and 177, one above the data area and one below it. For example, the upper five dot height area includes a border line 112 outside the black dot (which extends in the length direction of the data block), a white dot divider 113 (which is independent of the border line), and three dot height. Is composed of a set of clock marks 114. The clock marks are arranged alternately in white and black rows, starting with a black clock mark in the eighth column from each end of the data block. The clock mark dot and the dot in the data area are not separated.

The clock marks are symmetrical in that the encoded data is rotated by 180 degrees so as to overlap with the same boundary / clock mark region, respectively. The boundaries 112 and 113 are used by the encoded data reader for vertical tracking when data is read from the data area. The clock mark 114 is for horizontal tracking when data is read from the data area. The separation between the boundary and the clock mark by the white dot line is preferable as a result of blurring that occurs during reading. Thus, the border becomes a black line with white on each side, creating a good frequency response during reading. The clock mark with black and white staggered produces similar results except for the horizontal size, not the vertical size. If a boundary and clock mark are to be used for tracking, the encoded data reader must determine the position of the boundary and clock mark. In the next section, we will cover a target designed to indicate clock marks, boundaries, and how to reach data.

Target of target area

As shown in Fig. 7, each data block has two 15-dot wide target areas 116 and 117, one to the left of the data area and one to its right. The target area is separated from the data area by a single column of dots used for orientation determination. The purpose of the target areas 116 and 117 is to indicate how to reach the clock mark, boundary and data area. Each target area includes six targets (e.g., 118) designed to be easy to find by the encoded data reader. Referring to FIG. 6, the structure of the single target 120 is illustrated. Each target 120 is a 15 x 15 dot black rectangle with a central structure 121 and run length encoded target number 122. The central structure 121 is a simple white cross, the target number component 122 is only two columns of white dots, and each column is two dots long for each portion of the target number. Accordingly, the target ID 122 of the target number 1 is 2 dots long, and the target ID 122 of the target number 2 is 4 dots wide.

As shown in Fig. 7, the targets are arranged in a rotation invariant equation for card insertion. This means that the left target and the right target are the same, except that they are rotated 180 degrees. In the left target area 116, targets are arranged from targets 1 to 6, respectively, from top to bottom. In the right target area, the targets are arranged from targets 1 to 6 from below. The target number ID is always located half of the distance closest to the data area. The enlarged view of Fig. 7 clearly shows that the target on the left side is the same as that on the left side except that the right target is rotated 180 degrees.

As shown in FIG. 8, the targets 124 and 125 are located within the target area at 55 dots apart from the center portion. In addition, the distance from the center of target 1 124 to the first clock mark dot 126 of the upper clock mark area is 55 dot distance, and the distance from the center of the target to the first clock mark dot of the lower clock mark area (not shown) is 55 dot distance. to be. The first black clock mark in both regions begins with a direct coincidence with the center of the target (the eighth dot position is the center of a 15-dot wide target). The simplified schematic diagram of FIG. 8 shows the distance between target centers as well as the distance from target 1 124 to the first dot of the first black clock mark in the upper boundary / clock mark region. Since the distance from the upper and lower targets to the clock mark is 55 dots, and both sides of the encoded data are symmetrical (by rotating 180 degrees), the card can be read from left to right or from right to left. Regardless of the reading direction, the direction needs to be determined to extract data from the data area.

Direction column

As shown in Fig. 9, each data block has two directional columns 127 and 128 one dot wide, one to the left of the data area and one to the right of the data area. The direction column is provided to give direction information to the encoded data reader, and there is a single column 127 of white dots on the left side (right side of the left target) of the data area, and black on the right side (left side of the right target) of the data area. There is a single column 128 of dots. Since the target is directional invariant, if the picture is inserted forward in the right way or from the back. These two dot columns allow the encoded data reader to determine the direction of the picture.

From the point of view of the encoded data reader, assuming there are no sharpening degradations in the dots, there are two possibilities;

If the dot column on the left of the data area is white and the column on the right of the data area is black, the reader will recognize that the picture has been inserted in the same way as it was written.

If the dot column on the left of the data area is black and the column on the right of the data area is white, the reader will recognize that the picture has been inserted upside down and that the data area has been properly rotated. The reader must take appropriate steps to correctly recover the information from the picture.

Data area

As shown in Fig. 10, the data area of the data block is composed of 595 columns of 384 dots each, totaling 228,480 dots. The dots must be interpreted and decoded to yield the original data. Each dot represents one bit, so 228,480 dots represent 228,480 bits, or 28,560 bytes. The interpretation of each dot can be done as follows:

black One White 0

Substantial interpretation of the bits obtained from the dots, however, requires an understanding of the mapping from the original data to the dots in the data area of the picture.

Mapping from Initial Data to Data Area Dots

A process of taking an initial data file of maximum size 2,986,206 bytes and mapping it to dots in the data area of 210 data blocks at 1600 dpi resolution will be described. The encoded data reader will reverse this process to extract the original data from the dots on the picture. At first glance, the mapping of data to dots, binary data consisting of ones and zeros, seems insignificant, so black and white dots seem simple to write on the card. However, the above structure does not take into account the fact that the ink may be lightened, or part of the card may be damaged by dirt, dust, or even scratches. Without error detection encoding, there is no way to detect whether the data obtained from the card is correct or not. And without redundancy encoding, there is no way to correct detected errors. The purpose of the mapping process is to perform data recovery very robustly, and to give the encoded data reader the ability to read and recognize the data correctly.

There are four basic steps involved in mapping the original data file to data area dots.

ㆍ Compressing the First Data

Redundancy encoding the compressed data

• mixing the encoded data in a determined manner to reduce local encoding data corruption effects.

Outputting the mixed encoded data as dots in the data block on the picture.

Each step is reviewed in detail in the following sections.

Steps to Compress Initial Data

The data recorded in the picture may be composed of, for example, several blocks as follows.

1) color image data

2) audio annotation data

3) Image Processing Control Script

4) Location data (such as GPS receiver)

5) time and date

6) camera orientation

7) Tracking data-such as ink cartridge information, software version, camera identification

For high quality images, the source image data may be 2000 × 3000 pixels, 3 bytes per pixel. This is 18 megabytes of data, more than can be stored in infrared dots on a picture. The image data can be compressed at a ratio of about 10: 1 using image compression techniques, at which point the degradation of the image is usually negligible. Suitable image compression techniques include JPEG compression based on discrete cosine transforms and wavelet compression used in Huffaman coding, JPEG2000 or fractal compression.

By compressing to 10; 1, a high quality image of 18 megabytes becomes 1.8 megabytes of compressed data.

Audio annotation data can also be compressed using, for example, MP3 compression.

The image processing control script can generally not be more than 10 kilobytes, except when the script contains an image. Such images usually have to be compressed. A suitable image processing scripting language designed for photo processing is the 'Vark' language developed by the applicant and disclosed in the USSN 09 / 113,070 application. The remaining data is small and does not need to be compressed.

Excess Encoding with Reed-Solomon Encoding

Mapping data to encoded data dots is highly dependent on the excess encoding method employed. Reed-Solomon encoding is preferably selected because of its ability to handle burst errors and to effectively detect and correct errors using minimal excesses. Reed-Solomon encoding includes the Reed-Solomon code and its application (Vicker, S, and Bhargava, V, 1994), the IEEE Press (Rorabaugn, C). Error Coding Cookbook (McGraw-Hill, Riffns, H, Lyppens, H, 1997); Reed-Solomon error correction (Dr. Dobbs's Journal, As appropriate in standard texts such as January 1997 (Volume 22, 1st edition).

Several different parameters may be used for Reed Solomon encoding, including various magnitude symbols and different levels of excess. Preferably, the following encoding parameters are used.

* m = 8

* t = 64

m = 8 means that the code size is 8 bits (1 byte). This also means that the size n of each Reed-Solomon encoded block is 255 bytes (2 ^8-1 signs). To correct the t sign, there must be an extra 2t sign in the final block size. t = 64 means that 64 bytes (sign) in error state per block can be corrected. Thus, each 255 byte block has 128 (2x64) extra bytes, and the remaining 127 bytes (k = 127) are used to hold the original data. therefore,

* n = 255

* k = 127

In practice, the first 127 bytes of data are encoded to be a 255 byte block of Reed Solomon encoded data. The encoded 255 byte block is stored on the picture, which is then decoded back to the first 127 bytes by the encoded data reader. 384 dots in a single column of the data area of the data block hold 48 bytes (384/8). This 595 column holds 28,560 bytes. This is 112 Reed-Solomon blocks (each with 255 bytes). A total of 210 data blocks in the full picture hold a total of 23,520 Reed Solomon blocks (5,997,600 bytes at 255 bytes per Lead Solomon block). Two Reed-Solomon blocks are reserved for control information and the remaining blocks are used to store data. Since each Reed-Solomon block holds 127 bytes of actual data, the total amount of data that can be stored in the picture is 2,986,786 bytes (23,518 x 127). If the initial data is less than this amount, the data can be encoded to match the number of Reed Solomon blocks, after which the encoded blocks can be replicated until a total of 23,518 blocks are used. 11 shows the overall format of the encoding used.

Each of the two control blocks 132,133 contains the same encoding information required to decode the remaining 23,518 Reed-Solomon blocks;

The number of Reed-Solomon blocks (16 bits stored at the top and bottom) of the full message and the number of data bytes (8 bits) of the last Reed-Solomon block of the message are 32 times (consumes 96 bytes). The remaining 31 bytes are left set to zero. Each control block is Reed-Solomon encoded to convert 127 bytes of control information to 255 bytes of Reed-Solomon encoded data.

Since the control block is stored twice, it is likely to be preserved. In addition, the repetition of data in the control block has special meaning when using Reed-Solomon encoding. In an unbroken Reed-Solomon encoding block, the first 127 bytes of data are exactly the first data, and if the control block fails to decode (more than 64 symbols are broken), an attempt is made to recover the original message. Can be. Thus, even if the control block fails to decode, one can examine a set of 3 bytes to determine the closest value for the two decoding parameters. There is no guarantee that it can be recovered, but it is more likely to use extra values. The last 159 bytes of the control block are destroyed and the first 96 bytes remain completely. Looking at the first 96 bytes, we can see the number of repeated sets. This value can be effectively used to decode the remainder of the message in the remaining 23,518 Reed-Solomon blocks.

In order for each color to store a 3 "color color image of 4" x 6 "(102 mm x 152 mm) at" on "or" off "and 1600 dpi, 210,400 bits or 26,300 bytes of data are required. . In Bark scripts, a program can be about 10-15 kilobytes long. If a program having a size of 13,568 bytes is assumed, according to the present invention, 39,868 kilobytes required to suit the image data and the program data are required to be encoded. The number of Reed-Solomon blocks required is 314. The first 313 Reed-Solomon block is fully used, and 39,751 bytes (313 x 127) are consumed. The 314th block only has 117 bytes of data (10 bytes with the remaining 0s).

A hex representation of 127 bytes in each control block data before Reed-Solomon encoding is shown in FIG.

Scramble Encoded Data

Assuming that all encoded data is stored continuously in memory, up to 5,997,600 bytes of data (two control blocks and 23,518 information blocks, a total of 23,520 Reed-Solomon encoded blocks) can be stored in the picture. It is preferable that the data is not stored directly in the picture at this stage, but otherwise all 255 bytes of one Reed-Solomon block will be physically located on the card. Any dust, smudges or grime that causes physical damage to the card can cause more than 64 bytes of potential damage to a Reed-Solomon block, making the block unrecoverable. If there is no duplicate of the Reed-Solomon block, the entire picture cannot be decoded.

The solution is to take advantage of the fact that a picture has a very large number of bytes, and that the picture has an appropriate physical size. That is, the data may be mixed such that the symbols of a single Reed-Solomon block are not located close to each other. Of course, defects in photo deterioration may render the Reed-Solomon block irreversible, but on average data mixing makes the data much more robust. The selected mixing structure is simple and is shown schematically in FIG. All 0 bytes 136 from each Reed-Solomon block are put together and then all 1 bytes are put together. Thus, 23,520 0 bytes and 23,520 1 bytes are placed. Each data block on the picture can store 28,560 bytes. Thus, about 4 bytes are placed from each Reed-Solomon block in each data block on the picture.

Under this mixed structure, the total damage to all 16 data blocks in the picture results in 64 sign errors per Reed-Solomon block. This means that if there is no other damage to the picture, the entire data can be completely recovered even if there is no copy of the data.

Write mixed encoded data to photos

Once the original data is Reed-Solomon encoded, duplicated and mixed, 5,997,600 bytes of data are stored on the picture. Each data block in the picture stores 28,560 bytes.

The data is simply written as a photo data block, the first data block containing the first 28,560 bytes of mixed data, and the second data block containing the next 28,560 bytes.

As shown in Fig. 14, within the data block, the data is written from left to right in the column direction. Thus, the leftmost column in the data block contains the first 48 bytes of the 28,560 bytes of mixed data, and the last column contains the last 48 bytes of the 28,560 bytes of mixed data. Within a column, bytes are written from top to bottom, starting at bit 7 and ending at bit 0, one bit at a time. If the bit is set to (1), a black dot (infrared ink dot) is placed in the picture, and if the bit is (0), the dot is not placed in the picture.

For example, a data set of 5,997,600 bytes can be created by mixing 23,520 Reed Solomon encoded blocks stored in a picture. The first 28,560 bytes of data are written to the first data block. The first 48 bytes of the first 28,560 bytes are written to the first column of the data block, the next 48 bytes are written to the neighboring columns, and this process is repeated. Assume that the first two bytes of the 28,560 bytes are D3 5F in hexadecimal notation. The first two bytes will be stored in column 0 of the data block. Bit 7 of byte 0 is first stored, then bit 6 is stored, and then the bits are stored in sequence. Then, from bit 7 of byte 1 to bit 0 of byte 1 will be stored. Since each "1" is stored as black dots and each "0" is stored as white dots, these two bytes represent the following set of dots on the picture.

D3 (11010011) is black, black, white, black, white, white, black, black

5F (01011111) is white, black, white, black, black, black, black, black.

The encoded image data is sent to an inkjet printer and sent to an infrared ink nozzle, the image data being used to drive the cyan, magenta and yellow color nozzles, and the print media to be sent past the printhead of the printer.

The image obtained with the camera system can now be useful as a photographic image with the data needed to reproduce the printed image. Even if another copy of the picture is required, there is no need to position the disc separately, and the image can be reproduced in spite of the damage thereon and the image can be scanned into a computer system for a specific purpose, or a telecommunications network It can be applied in a digital format that can be transmitted through.

Other types of formats, called so-called artcard formats, are disclosed in USSN 09 / 113,070 and USSN 09 / 112,785, which may equally be used in place of the "alternative artcard" format described above. In the artcard format, data is printed on the print media in the form of a continuous area, but in this case the infrared ink area on the photo is printed with margins such as targets at the beginning and end edges of the data area. It is surrounded by other markers to designate borders and clock marks along the top and bottom to help the decoding of the data contained in the data area. The target confirms that the orientation of the card being read is rotated by at least 1 ° from horizontal. And to detect whether the card is inserted first or backward first. Otherwise, reading the data may be unreliable.

The foregoing description is limited to specific embodiments of the present invention.

However, it will be apparent that variations and modifications may be made to the present invention in order to obtain any or all advantages of the present invention. For example, the present invention can be embodied in hardware or software that can be readily performed by those skilled in the art in the form of a suitably programmed digital data processing system. Accordingly, it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the scope and true spirit of the invention.

Claims (9)

 A method of printing a photograph with a printer comprising first inkjet printing nozzles for printing visible ink and second inkjet printing nozzles for printing infrared ink, the method comprising: a) transferring image data taken by the camera and modified by the digital data processing system using an image processing program from the digital data processing system to the first inkjet printing nozzles; b) transferring the modified image data and the fault tolerant encoded digital form of the image processing program from the digital data processing system to the second inkjet printing nozzles; And c) printing the deformed image data and the error-tolerant encoded digital form of the image processing program using second printing nozzles on the surface of the print medium while simultaneously using the first printing nozzles on the same surface of the print medium. Printing the modified image data; Printing method comprising a. The method of claim 1, And the infrared ink is an infrared absorbing ink that hardly absorbs the visible spectrum, and wherein the visible ink is an ink visible to a human eye. The method of claim 1, And said encoded fault-tolerant digital forms are Reed-Solomon encoded versions of said image processing program and said modified image data. The method of claim 1, And a high frequency modulation signal is applied to the error resistant encoded forms such that they comprise repeatable high frequency spectral components. The method of claim 4, wherein And the high frequency modulated signal comprises a checkerboard two-dimensional spatial signal. The method of claim 1, And the printing step comprises using a print roll means for storing the print medium and an ink supply device for the first and second nozzles that can be separated from the camera. In the device for printing a photo, a) a printer having first inkjet printing nozzles for printing visible ink and second inkjet printing nozzles for printing infrared ink; And b) transfer image data taken by the camera and deformed by the digital data processing system using an image processing program to the first inkjet printing nozzles, and the deformed image data and the image processing program. A digital data processing system arranged to transmit an error encoded digital form to the second inkjet printing nozzles, The printer prints the deformed image data on the surface of the print medium using the first printing nozzles, and simultaneously uses the deformed image data and the second inkjet printing nozzles on the same surface of the print medium. And a printing device arranged to print a fault-tolerant encoded digital form of the image processing program. The method of claim 7, wherein And the infrared ink is an infrared absorbing ink that hardly absorbs the visible spectrum, and the visible ink is an ink visible to a human eye. The method of claim 7, wherein And the printer includes a page width printhead using an inkjet structure having a print roll for supplying print media.